Vibration harvesters designed to replace AA, AAA batteries

LONDON – Japan's Brother Industries Ltd., best known as a producer of printers, has developed vibration energy harvesters in form factors to allow them to replace AA and AAA batteries, according to a Tech-On article.

To illustrate the application of vibration-powered electricity generators the example is given of installing them in a remote control for a television or set-top box, where it is possible to use the remote after shaking it to generate power. In such applications the use of energy harvesters in AA and AAA formats can eliminate the need to replace batteries and reduces waste.

Inside the battery-shaped case is an electromagnetic induction generator and a 500-mF capacitor for storage. The output of the AA-size generator is 10 to 180-mW, the report said and versions have been produced that provide power at 1.6- and 3.2-volts, while a AAA unit that generates 2.7-V has also been produced.

The units are only suitable for equipment with low duty cycles, such as remote controls and provide about 100-mW of power, while remote controls typically consume between 40-mW and 100-mW when in use, the report said.

Brother Industries plans to exhibit the AA and AAA energy harvesters at the Techno-Frontier exhibition in Japan July 21 to 23 showing it running a TV remote control, a remote control for lighting and a LED flashlight, the report said.

This looks very promising work. Vibration harvester will have plethora of applications where its cost will be justified.
Fusion of vibration harvester with MEMS may provide solution to micro scale implantable bio-medical devices. With this, you may not need to come back to hospital to change battery after few years. At other end, infant will have their toys always powered. They may not need help from grownups. And there are remotely located sensors in forests and oceans always powered and collecting data. I will eagerly await its availability.

Excellent idea. I am looking forward to seeing Intel’s wireless power marketed soon http://blogs.intel.com/research/2008/10/rattner_the_promise_of_wireles.php
Though this is based on Tesla’s work, it will be cool to such a product. I think to some extent, Palm’s touch charger was a cool device :)

As with most energy innovations, the cost/payback calculation needs to be run. Many of my remotes seem to work for the shelf life of the batteries (3-5 years), while one remote needs batteries every 6 months. The vibration harvesters would probably not be cost effective for the more efficient/less frequently used remotes; while they would have to be less than 4-6x the cost of AA's or AAA's for the less efficient remotes to break even.

This is a great idea to keep our earth GREEN. When I read the above article, my mind came across a recent news about a football stadium where the audiences can generate electricity for lighting by stepping on and off on where they watch the football game.

This sounds like a very good innovation especially for gadgets like TV remote. It will at least ensure some calories burnt for the couch potatoes apart from saving the hassle of replacing those AA and AAA batteries every now and then. The days of automatic wrist watches which worked on movement of wrist are back! the spring is getting replaced by a capacitor.